‘Ticket calling’ is the dangerous travel hack to score cheaper flights: ‘Why not?’

To get a cheaper flight, buy a ticket to a destination you don’t intend to visit.

In what is called a “drop ticket”, passengers can snag a less expensive flight by booking a one-stop flight at their intended destination.

Businessman and investor Mike Bolen recently went to X to discover his money-saving discovery after being shocked by the high price of a direct flight from the West Coast to St. Louis, Missouri.

Sharing a screenshot of the booking page, he said direct flights to his desired destination start at $564, but if he books a trip to Atlanta with a layover in St. Louis, it would only cost $198.

“Why don’t you just do a handstand and get off the plane at STL?” he wrote in a post on X, which has been viewed over 6 million times. “I am!”

The hack is a travel trick called “skiplagging” or “skipped ticket”, which takes its name from “throwing away” the ticket for the second leg of the booked journey.

While Bolen told Fox News that the hack “worked fine” with “no problems,” experts warn that the solution carries risks.

“An airline can close your frequent flyer account or even ban you from flying [with] those in the future. It’s something to consider every now and then, not something to do every week,” travel expert and blogger Gary Leff wrote in a blog post, Fox News reported.

Not to mention, gate agents may ask you to check your luggage before boarding, and airlines may reroute flights.

“Airlines don’t like skiplagging because it costs them money. “Connecting flights are generally cheaper than nonstop flights because airlines have a lower price ceiling on them,” The Vacationer co-founder Phil Dengler previously told CNN.

“Furthermore, your airline knows you were on the first flight and are at the airport. Gate agents may call your name or slightly delay closing the doors. In addition to losing money, this creates additional stress for airline staff.”

According to Forbes, American Airlines has previously stated that passengers who miss the second leg of their journey can cause operational problems and also take away tickets from other customers.

“Deliberately creating an empty seat that could have been used by a customer or other team member is an all-around bad outcome,” the airline said in an earlier statement, according to Forbes.

But Aktarer Zaman, founder of budget travel site Skiplagged, said the ban on skiplagging is a long-held myth.

“In the 11 years of our existence, I have never heard of anyone being banned for ski obstruction. Anything you read online about someone getting banned is just a rumor,” he told CNBC last month, adding that some 300,000 customers have benefited from going through his website over the past year.

While Zaman has been stuck on “several occasions”, he also warned users not to “abuse” it.

“The ethics of selling discarded tickets has been debated for decades. It depends on the airlines that believe that a flight from A to B to C is a fundamentally different product than a flight from A to B, you’re buying one thing and consuming another,” Leff said.

“And that goes against the common sense notion that if you buy seats on two flights, it’s up to you what to do with them. It’s all a result of complicated pricing that average customers find confusing and unfair at first.”

However, if travelers dare to try it, Leff recommends that airlines make it harder to impose consequences.

“If you’re going to bounce tickets, consider at least crediting miles to a frequent flyer partner account, although that might not protect you — but why make it easier for them to track you down?” he advised.